Abstract: [Objectives] Bifacial photovoltaic (BPV) can provide rear side gain and has good development prospects. However, how to accurately analyze the performance of BPV system under coupled environment has become one of the urgent issues to be addressed. To this end, an optical-thermal-electrical-environmental coupling (OTEEC) model was proposed to explore the optical-thermal- electrical performance in a real environment through numerical simulation. [Methods] Firstly, the propagation path of light in BPV system was simulated based on the Monte Carlo ray tracing method to obtain the non-uniform irradiation distributions on front and rear sides of BPV panel. Then the system’s thermal-electrical performance was calculated by the finite volume method and discrete integral method, respectively. Finally, OTEEC model was validated experimentally and compared with the existing optical-thermal-electrical coupling (OTEC) model. [Results] For both cloudy and sunny days, the maximum relative errors of irradiation distribution on front and rear sides of BPV panel between OTEEC model and experiments are less than 13%. The maximum relative errors of temperature data and instantaneous electric power obtained by OTEEC model and experiments respectively are less than 11% under cloudy windless day and sunny day with wind. Moreover, the computational accuracy of OTEEC model is higher than that of existing OTEC model under both windy and windless conditions, which proves that OTEEC model has better generalizability and credibility. [Conclusions] The proposed OTEEC model provides a scientific basis for the performance enhancement, operation scheduling and management of BPV systems.

Key words: BPV system, optical-thermal-electrical- coupling (OTEC) model, optical-thermal-electrical- environmental coupling (OTEEC) model, Monte Carlo ray tracing method, performance analysis, environmental conditions, optical-thermal-electrical performance, experimental verification